


Ping

by Sineala



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: 616 Day, Avengers Vol. 3 (1998), Dreams, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 00:44:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19240411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/pseuds/Sineala
Summary: You know what should never work like @mentions? Telepathy.





	Ping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magicasen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicasen/gifts).



> A 616 Day ficlet. Have some telepathy! Thanks to Magic for providing inspiration.
> 
> Beta by Kiyaar, Blossom, Moony, and Magic.

"The first thing I want to say," Tony said, looking around the rest of the team at the briefing-room table, "is that, out of respect for our teammate, I am _not_ going to say what you think I'm going to say."

Clint leaned back and put his boots on the table; Steve glared. Wanda at least smiled a gracious smile.

"Yeah," Clint drawled, "but we all know you're thinking it." He glanced over at Steve. "Don't we, Cap?"

"Don't ask me," Steve said. "I can't tell." But then he looked at Tony and his mouth didn't move and, clear as a bell, the words _Don't worry. I'm sure we'll get this figured out, Tony_ echoed in Tony's head.

"See?" Tony said. "There it goes again! What kind of cut-rate, bargain-basement telepathy spell is this? That's all I want to know."

"What," Clint said, and of course it was Clint again, "so you're jealous because you can only hear _some_ of Cap's thoughts?"

"Hawkeye," Carol said, mildly. Steve had looked away; his face was red. Tony had no idea what he was thinking. Which should have been par for the course, ordinarily, but, well... it had been a weird day.

Tony very firmly pushed back the part of his mind that was curious about that -- thank God for the years of practice -- and held up his hands. "I'm just saying that it doesn't make any sense. It just seems to me like there should be either complete telepathy or zero telepathy. Not... whatever this is."

The kid who'd cursed them had been a kid, definitely. Pimply-faced teenager. Maybe he'd gotten something wrong. Or maybe-- hey, maybe, because it was Steve, the serum was trying to fix it--

_I mean, it's a theory_ , Steve said, in his head, and Tony jumped again. _But if that were true, I'd expect it to be getting better. It seems pretty stable to me._

"Okay," Tony said, warily, "so you heard that."

Steve gave an unnecessary nod. _Loud and clear_.

"Gosh," Clint said. "This is a really interesting conversation that I can only hear fifty percent of. Thanks for thinking of us."

Wanda poked him in the arm. "They're _trying_."

"Wanda," Steve said, "you're not sensing any...?"

Wanda's gaze went unfocused. "There's some kind of magical bond between you. That's certain. I don't know yet how to break it. I can't even tell what it is."

"We can think at each other," Steve says, "and that comes through perfectly. But then mostly, other than that, it's nothing. Until it isn't." He shrugged. "Maybe it's random?"

If Tony was honest with himself, that was the part that he was finding unnerving. It was that he didn't know when he'd be alone in his head. He wanted to be able to predict this. Probably the best thing to do right now was nothing. Resume a normal schedule. See if that could help anything. He had a bunch of business over at Stark Solutions, a new consulting contract. The most likely outcome was that Steve would be bored with everything Tony had to think about.

_What?_ Steve asked. _I only caught the end of that._

_You didn't miss much_ , Tony thought back. _Just thinking about work. Then I mentioned you._

_Yeah_ , Steve thought, _that was the part I-- oh._

"What?" Tony said, aloud.

"Oh, come _on_ ," Clint said, exasperated.

"I know what it is," Steve said. "It's when we think about each other. It's like I... pick up when I'm being mentioned."

"Like pinging a server," Tony said, thoughtfully. "Or a user."

Steve's mental voice faded out and back in again on _that's just like Tony, always an engineer_ , and weirdly he sounded sort of proud. "If you say so," Steve said, aloud, like after ten years he still wanted to pretend Tony had taught him nothing about network administration.

Okay. So until the curse was lifted, or whatever it was, all Tony had to do was... not think about him.

Well. Shit.

* * *

Thankfully, Steve didn't seem to have noticed. Maybe it triggered on his name. It seemed to be words. It was definitely word-based, he thought. Maybe that would save him.

As they walked down the hall, after the meeting broke up, Tony constructed a test, a picture of Steve in his mind. It was hard to do without thinking his name, but he called up a memory -- their last mission, Steve helping him up, Steve smiling at him.

Ahead of him, Steve didn't turn around. Huh.

_You didn't catch that?_ Tony asked.

_Catch what?_ Steve asked. _You weren't thinking anything._

Okay. Thank God. As long as he didn't use words, as long as he didn't think about Steve by name--

_What was that about me?_ Steve asked. _I heard that, that time._

_Nothing_ , Tony says, hastily. _Just checking._

He just had to not think about it. Not think about... feelings. Not think about anything he had ever felt for--

He cut himself off just in time.

* * *

It wasn't so bad, really. After dinner, Tony excused himself to the workshop, figuring that the more distracted he kept himself, the better it was.

The weird thing, though, was that Steve kept thinking about him. As near as he could tell, Steve was just sitting upstairs working on paperwork, but every so often a _wonder what Tony thinks_ and _God, Tony was so good that day_ came zipping through.

Eventually Tony put the gauntlet he was working on aside before Steve managed to really distract him.

_Everything okay up there?_

_Fine_ , Steve said, quickly. _Sorry. Was I bothering you?_

_It's not a problem_ , Tony said. _Just give me thirty seconds to do this weld, okay?_

_Got it_ , Steve said, and then his mind slid away again.

Tony finished the gauntlet in record time. There. Maybe this thing with him and Steve wasn't going to be so bad after all.

_I can try to stop?_ Steve offered, sounding ashamed, and shit, shit, he'd heard that.

Tony scrambled for something noncommittal to say. _No, it's all right_ , he said. _I don't mind if you think about me._

Didn't mind. Ha. Of course he didn't mind.

They'd better come up with a way to break this spell soon.

* * *

Luckily for Tony, Steve went to sleep not long after that, and Tony grabbed his fifth cup of coffee and could finally enjoy the peace and quiet of his own brain.

He could think about Steve now, for a bit.

Oh, that was a dangerous idea.

It wasn't like Tony's life wasn't dangerous, and -- God, he loved Steve. He loved him so much. He exhaled hard; it was a relief to finally think it again. Steve didn't want him, of course; who could be straighter than Captain America? There was no way Tony was ever going to tell him. He just had to... keep quiet a little longer. Then he'd have his mind to himself, and he could think about Steve without... pinging him... and everything would be back to normal.

Yeah. Good plan. Great plan.

Okay, terrible plan, but he'd definitely had worse. He could survive this.

* * *

Two hours later. Tony was actually asleep in his actual bed, thank you very much, when a sudden noise startled him awake.

_Tony._

Not a noise. A thought. Steve's mind.

_Tony. Tony. Tony._ He sounded more urgent now.

_Steve?_ Tony sent back. _Everything's okay, Steve._

There was silence. It was probably nothing. He yawned. He turned over. He went back to sleep.

* * *

Tony had finally made it to the kitchen when Steve came back from his run; he'd been quiet right up until Tony caught a stray _wonder if I should bring Tony coffee_ thought and Tony hadn't been quite successful at not thinking _you're amazing_ at him.

That had been close. But, hey, it could be a friendly sort of admiration, right? Everyone admired Captain America.

And, of course, now Steve was standing here, holding out a latte, just for him.

_Thanks_ , Tony thought, while drinking, because he was damned if he wasn't going to enjoy this spell's one benefit of being able to talk with his mouth full. _Nice of you._

"It wasn't any trouble," Steve said, aloud, and at least they were alone so no one was going to get annoyed with them having this conversation half in their heads. "Just figured you'd appreciate it."

Steve stretched -- a view that Tony very carefully did not appreciate -- then headed over to the fridge to retrieve his bottle of orange juice. How wholesome.

"You doing all right?"

_Yeah, fine_ , Steve said, still drinking. _Why?_

"It's just that you woke me up saying my name," Tony said, and Steve froze.

"Um," Steve said, lowering his orange juice. "I thought I was still dreaming-- I didn't think you were--"

"Oh," Tony said, understanding. "Dreaming, right? Bad dreams? Yeah, I've been there. Hope it wasn't too upsetting."

"No, uh, I," Steve said, and he didn't finish his sentence. "I'm fine. I should probably go shower."

Tony watched as Steve put the juice back, practically slammed the fridge door, and headed out.

Huh.

Tony sipped his latte.

It had probably been some terrible nightmare, all right.

* * *

It happened the next night too.

_Tony_ , Steve said, urgently, and Tony sat upright in the darkness. _Oh, God, Tony._

_You're dreaming_ , Tony said. _It's okay. It's just a dream._

There was a brief pause.

_Uh_ , Steve said. _Yeah. Sorry about that._

_No problem_ , Tony said, and he lay back and drifted off again.

* * *

_Steve, I had no idea you had so many nightmares about me_ , Tony said, on the third night.

Steve didn't say anything back.

He'd probably gone back to sleep. Good.

* * *

Steve had been looking at him really weirdly all morning. Tony's first thought was that maybe he hadn't been getting enough sleep, but he'd seemed as alert as ever when the meeting started.

_Steve?_ Tony thought, but Steve didn't say anything.

"Huh," Tony said aloud. "You can't hear me, can you?"

Steve squinted at him and shook his head.

"Oh, thank God," Clint said.

"I can't hear anything," Tony said.

Wanda stared between them both. "The spell seems to have faded."

Great. Now he could think about his hopeless crush on Steve all he wanted. The thought should have made Tony happy, but instead something about it just made him sadder, like he'd missed his chance.

Steve, though -- Steve was looking downright _overjoyed_. There was a hint of a relieved smile on his face.

And okay, that just made Tony feel wretched. Sure, maybe forced telepathy hadn't been a picnic, but Tony hadn't thought Steve had hated it all that much. He supposed he should have figured it. Who would have wanted to be bonded to him?

* * *

Steve caught his arm as they were leaving the meeting. "So, uh, I thought maybe if you weren't busy, we could talk--"

About what? About how Steve hated him?

"I'm very busy," Tony lied. "Sorry."

Steve's face fell, and that just didn't make any goddamn sense. Yet another thing to hate magic for.

* * *

He spent a good three days successfully avoiding Steve -- two of them in Seattle -- until he made the mistake of heading to the library late at night to find Steve the room's only occupant.

"I can go," Tony said, quickly, his hand still on the door.

But Steve was shaking his head and sitting up. "No, no, come in," he said, and Tony supposed they were doing this now. Steve was still shaking his head. He ran his hands through his hair, like he was nervous. "I-- I wanted to talk to you."

Tony sat, warily, on the chair opposite Steve. "About what?"

"You know, I thought this would be easier when we had telepathy," Steve said, ruefully. "I thought-- I thought I wouldn't have to say anything, and then I didn't, and I-- and I--"

God, Steve really was nervous. "Steve, what's wrong?"

Steve took a shuddering breath. "When I kept calling to you in my sleep. They weren't, uh. They weren't bad dreams."

Oh. Oh, God. Tony's imagination filled with all the dreams Steve had been having about him. He knew now exactly what kind of dreams they had been. Steve had been-- oh-- oh wow--

"And I understand that you don't feel the same way," Steve was doggedly continuing, "but I felt that, after all this time, I couldn't keep it a secret. I felt so awful having to lie to you about it, and I know I don't deserve your sympathy, but--"

"Steve?"

Steve stopped. Tony wished they had the telepathy back, just for one more instant.

"I have spent the entire week trying not to think about the feelings I had for you," Tony said.

Steve blinked at him in confusion, and that was when Tony decided now was a good time to lean over and tug Steve up out of his chair. Steve's arms went around him and, yeah, okay, Steve got it now, Tony thought, as Steve leaned in and kissed him.

"I can make your dreams come true?" Tony offered.

Steve's nose wrinkled. "Tony, that is a terrible line."

"You're not saying no," Tony pointed out, his heart pounding as Steve smiled at him.

"Yes," Steve said. "Yes, please," and he had to stop talking again to kiss him. If only they'd done this a few days ago; they wouldn't have had to stop. "I'm probably going to say your name a lot, though. It's, uh. A habit." His cheeks flushed.

"I absolutely do not mind," Tony said, and kissed him again.

**Author's Note:**

> The usual [Tumblr post](https://sineala.tumblr.com/post/185634246694/fic-ping)!


End file.
